Community supported agriculture, aka CSAs, is evolving! Recently, some canning enthusiasts have started to copy the traditional CSA model. They’re using their canning skills to provide the community with locally grown produce during the long, cold winter.

According to NPR’s The Salt, these canning CSAs sell preserved, locally grown goods once the fresh produce runs out. Here’s what several of these re-imagined CSAs are offering:

Dried beans

Grains

Baking mixes

Frozen meats

Farmhouse cheese

Salsa

Jams

Syrups

Pickles

Fermented vegetables

The NPR article highlights Cheryl Wixon’s Kitchen as one of the businesses that is taking part in this new CSA structure. Wixon’s Kitchen is part of an organization called Coastal Farm and Foods, located in Belfast, Maine. Coastal Farm is an incubator for commercial small-scale food processing, according to The Salt.

The price for a share at Wixon’s canning CSA is $300. That fee pays for the following: Fifty-four “jars of pasta and pizza sauces, cranberry ketchups and fruit jams and butters.” All canned goods are delivered by the CSA between November and April.

So what’s the main difference between fresh produce CSAs and pantry-type CSAs? Commercial food processing needs to be done in a licensed kitchen, which is costly to rent, reports The Salt.

According to the article, other states are adopting a similar CSA style, too. There is one other drawback to CSA canning though: The pantry shares can take consumers further away from the farmer who originally grew the produce.

It’s pretty hard to dislike greenhouses. Greenhouses are excellent for housing delicate seedlings until they become big, hearty, healthy plants ready for the earth. And greenhouses have an ability to hold a consistent temperature in order to make growing year round -- even in regions that get quite cold – possible! It’s hard to imagine greenhouses being any more awesome. Well… I know it’s hard to believe (hold on to your hats), but a Portland, Oregon startup has found a way to make greenhouses more stellar.

It’s pretty hard to dislike greenhouses. Greenhouses are excellent for housing delicate seedlings until they become big, hearty, healthy plants ready for the earth. And greenhouses have an ability to hold a consistent temperature in order to make growing year round — even in regions that get quite cold – possible! It’s hard to imagine greenhouses being any more awesome. Well… I know it’s hard to believe (hold on to your hats), but a Portland, Oregon startup has found a way to make greenhouses more stellar.

Fresh Air Farms, a Portland-based greenhouse startup, aims to “revolutionize” vegetable and fruit production. The company wants to help local products and produce get distributed throughout the year. The business’ large-scale greenhouses will contain vine-ripened produce that’s free of chemicals and available in any type of climate.

Gerry Snell, Fresh Air Farms founder and president, said that the company’s greenhouses, when utilized to their full capacity, can grow nearly 56,000 pounds of produce every day. The company plans to deliver to local grocery stores within 24 hours of when the lush, local produce is harvested. The company is projected to earn up to $40 million every year and is expected to begin delivering to Portland area grocery stores next year.

Greenhouse growing techniques

Fresh Air Farms’ greenhouses utilize hydroponics. The hydroponic-growing method allows plantings to be easily raised sans chemicals. The growing method, in general, is quite sustainable, too. It doesn’t add to farmland depletion and is an extremely water-efficient way to raise greens.

Keeping it local

According to Snell, it often takes delivery companies up to seven to 10 days to transport produce from point A to point B. He said that the city of Portland imports almost 50 percent of its produce in the summer, and nearly 100 percent in the winter.

The greenhouse company plans to add at least 275 jobs to the Portland area over the next ten years.

Local eating is at its heart a way for people living in a capitalist, urban society to go back to their roots, to remember what it was like when the food that was grown around you was what you had. Of course, 'green' and sustainable elements of local eating are important, but the feeling of returning to a community, like the "good old days," is a major draw to being a locavore. So, I must admit that at first glance, the concept behind FarmersWeb struck me as slightly counterintuitive... a website that helped people buy local? Luckily, FarmersWeb representative Sam Fox was happy to answer my questions about how FarmersWeb is bringing local eating into the 21st century.

Local eating is at its heart a way for people living in a capitalist, urban society to go back to their roots, to remember what it was like when the food that was grown around you was what you had. Of course, ‘green’ and sustainable elements of local eating are very important, but the feeling of returning to a community, like the “good old days,” is a major draw to being a locavore. So, I must admit that at first glance, the concept behind FarmersWeb struck me as slightly counterintuitive… a website that helped people buy local? Luckily, FarmersWeb representative Sam Fox was happy to answer my questions about how FarmersWeb is bringing local eating into the 21st century.

FarmersWeb was started by Jennifer Goggin, David Ross, and Aaron Grosbard. “Aaron and Jenn had some experience working for a local focused distributer in NYC, and thought they could do it better and in a more farmer friendly way,” Sam explains. “David has an entrepreneurial background and helped get the ball rolling.” And get the ball rolling they did. The concept was deceptively simple, which is probably the key to its success: connect farmers to wholesale buyers, allowing them to cut out the middle man and stay local.

“The platform acts as an inventory management system for farmers, as well as a way to find new buyers. We also help them figure out delivery, and we handle payment collection,” Sam explains. “For buyers, we offer an easy and convenient way for them to buy local food.”

Because of the online platform, certain aspects of what “local” means are finessed. Buyers can only see products coming from less than 300 miles from their location, which emphasizes using local products, an idea of which Sam is, not surprisingly, a proponent. “As the site is really wholesale driven, I don’t use it regularly (I unfortunately rarely have need for a side of beef, a couple gallons of milk, or a couple cases of carrots), but it’s been a blast working directly with farmers and discovering new and exciting products.”

Whether you’re buying wholesale or just for your family, buying local is becoming more and more important… and more and more possible. There’s no excuse not to buy local anymore. “It’s important to know where your food comes from in order to make informed decisions,” Sam says. “It’s important to eliminate waste from shipping, packaging, and transportation. By eating local, you maintain a connection with all the people that are part of your supply chain, and that connection leads to transparency and ultimately better practices.”

But the question still begged to be asked: why put local online? Luckily, Sam had the answer to that as well. “I think that in addition to expanding ones reach, the internet can be helpful in focusing it. That is, by putting farmers and buyers online, they’re able to connect with others in their area.” At the end of the day, the world wide web is making it even easier to connect with people who are essentially neighbors… who’d have thought it could be possible?

For more ways to use technology to facilitate local eating, look no further:

]]>http://www.organicauthority.com/foodie-buzz/farmersweb-local-food-into-the-21st-century.html/feed/0Eating Local Made Easier by a Few Good Eggshttp://www.organicauthority.com/foodie-buzz/eating-local-made-easier.html
http://www.organicauthority.com/foodie-buzz/eating-local-made-easier.html#commentsFri, 03 Aug 2012 00:05:55 +0000http://www.organicauthority.com/s1-foodie-buzz/c4-foodie-buzz/eating-local-made-easier/

A San Francisco-based web startup called Good Eggs is working to make consumer connections with their local foodshed simpler by developing a direct-sales model for small, local food producers.

A San Francisco-based web startup called Good Eggs is working to make consumer connections with their local foodshed simpler by developing a direct-sales model for small, local food producers.

GoodEggs.com, which was launched in 2011, helps local food producers reach more customers by handling the logistics of actually reaching those customers. So, for example, the website might allow consumers to place an order for locally-made bread, and then pick up the bread at a pre-determined location in their neighborhood. The baker doesn’t have to worry about making tons of different deliveries or scaling up enough to support a retail location, she just makes one delivery to the pick-up location.

The company is driven by a mission to connect and grow local food systems—in the Bay Area for now, but the founders hope to take the concept worldwide. Since customers are shopping directly from local growers and producers, there’s no shipping fees involved, and producers can focus on their product, rather than on sales, marketing and distribution.

Good Eggs isn’t the first company to use technology and the web to help the local food movement. Sites like Farmigo, Plovgh, Farmers Web and others have all taken on the challenge of connecting customers with their local farmers in different areas of the country, offering services that improve on the traditional CSA (community supported agriculture) model by allowing more choice by consumers and more support for farmers.

As demand for local food grows, demand for these sorts of distribution solutions will likely also grow, and hopefully, the new technologies of the Internet and e-commerce can help provide the missing links in creating a new food system that focuses on local products to replace the current, broken system we have today.

Not shy about a commitment to sustainability, Chipotle Mexican Grill has announced that for the second year in a row, the chain will serve more than 10 million pounds of locally sourced fruits and vegetables at its more than 1,300 U.S. locations.

Not shy about a commitment to sustainability, Chipotle Mexican Grill has announced that for the second year in a row, the chain will serve more than 10 million pounds of locally sourced fruits and vegetables at its more than 1,300 U.S. locations.

The produce sourced for Chipotle restaurant locations is grown on farms within 350 miles of the restaurants where they will be served. The only national restaurant company with a significant commitment to locally grown produce says that it works directly with regional family-owned farms to source ingredients including bell peppers and jalapenos, onions, fresh herbs and lettuce. Restaurants located in California and Florida also source local tomatoes, avocados and lemons. The chain also serves organically grown beans and cilantro, working with Food Alliance certified growers to source beans from farmers that use conservation tillage methods to reduce soil erosion.

Chipotle already sources 100 percent of its meat from animals that are naturally raised without antibiotics or added hormones. The company recently announced a major overhaul to its dairy offerings, sourcing pasture-raised dairy for 100 percent of its sour cream and 65 percent of the chain’s cheese.

In a statement, Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle said, “Food that is locally grown is fresher and better tasting, and supports local farm communities around the country. Making local food accessible is an important part of our commitment to providing better food, from more sustainable sources. It is a key element in our effort to change the way people think about and eat fast food.”

Say what you will about tie-dye wearing hippies, but the 1960s gave birth to a slew of natural food co-ops and health food stores that sparked the organic movement now mostly defined by Whole Foods. Also known as Whole Paycheck for their expensive and irresistible offerings, a trip to Whole Foods can tip the $100 mark in just a single bag. As the nation's largest natural food chain now tries to shake its nickname (especially in these that-darn-recession-just-won't-quit times), it's a good time to consider our shopping options, from the superchains to the Mom and Pop stores to the farmers markets.

Say what you will about tie-dye wearing hippies, but the 1960s gave birth to a slew of natural food co-ops and health food stores that sparked the organic movement now mostly defined by Whole Foods. Also known as Whole Paycheck for their expensive and irresistible offerings, a trip to Whole Foods can tip the $100 mark in just a single bag. As the nation’s largest natural food chain now tries to shake its nickname (especially in these that-darn-recession-just-won’t-quit times), it’s a good time to consider our shopping options, from the superchains to the Mom and Pop stores to the farmers markets.

Take a look at the pros and cons of the organic food shopping options. What’s your preference?

Lots of personal care and household items that can make it a one-stop-shopping trip.

Cons:

Having a wide variety of organic fruits and vegetables year round can mean importing from far-away countries, not the most sustainable practice.

Despite the lower-priced private label items, the store is full of high-priced enticing items that can easily lead to over-spending.

Even though the chain promotes a long list of quality standards (like humane animal treatment and cage-free eggs), some items can contain unhealthy ingredients, not easily discerned by the common shopper.

The Mom & Pop Natural Food Store or Co-op

Pros:

Higher likelihood of being locally owned and operated.

Often offers only seasonal, local and organic produce, meat and dairy.

May be more capable of special ordering items (even if they don’t sell them in the store).

May have large bulk food selection with better pricing on commodity items.

Cons:

Can lack on selection.

May not be as accessible as a larger market.

May be more expensive on some items than stores that offer private label or monthly specials.

Still need to make other shopping stops for household items and staples.

The Verdict

Eating organic means being discerning in food choices and foregoing the mass-marketed shopping experience. While Whole Foods might meet most of your shopping needs, spending time in a variety of local markets and farmers markets will provide you both variety and community—factors integral to the shopping experience, not to be overlooked.

Your CSA closed up shop months ago, and spring is looking further away than ever (stupid groundhog!), but you can still get fresh, organic produce delivered straight to your door. Shop online with one of these companies and let the organic goodies come to you.

Your CSA closed up shop months ago, and spring is looking further away than ever (stupid groundhog!), but you can still get fresh, organic produce delivered straight to your door. Shop online with one of these companies and let the organic goodies come to you.

Door to Door Organics

Door to Door Organics, servicing Colorado, Kansas City, Chicago, Michigan and parts of the north east, delivers a box of fruits, veggies or both straight to your door with the option of customizing both the amount you receive and what you receive—you can swap out up to five items each week. They partner with farmers, ensuring that all the produce they sell is organic. Plus, in some areas, you can opt for your box to feature only local produce during the growing season. They also sell all kinds of natural and organic groceries, and if you’re at a loss for what to cook, you can now shop by recipe in their new kitchen section. Just add a recipe to your meal plan, and then add the ingredients to your weekly order. Super awesome for those pressed for time.

Boxed Greens

Committed to working with small, local farmers, Boxed Greens mostly serves the metro areas in Arizona with weekly deliveries of boxes of fresh, local, organic produce. But they also offer overnight shipping to anywhere in the country, and they have expanded their sales to include organic meats and dairy, breads, and even household and paper goods.

SPUD

SPUD stands for Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery and provides exactly that service to six major metropolitan areas along the West Coast, from Calgary to Orange County. The service provides local, organic produce and artisan groceries delivered to your door. One unique feature is that you can use their website to track how far your food has traveled—great for folks trying out the 100-mile diet.

Urban Organic

It sounds like an oxymoron, but Urban Organic provides organic produce and grocery delivery to the New York tri-state area, which is a real boon for New Yorkers who don’t want to lug pounds and pounds of organic produce home on the subway! They try to source their products from local producers first, and everything they sell is USDA certified.

The Green PolkaDot Box

For everyone else, The Green PolkaDot Box hopes to eliminate organic food deserts by becoming the largest, most influential member-based buying collective for organic foods. Like a local co-op, this site hopes to be your one-stop organic foods grocery store—just online instead of at a physical location. While the company is still growing, their ultimate goal is to provide the best price anywhere for organic produce and other goods. But, like shopping at Costco, you have to pay an annual membership fee to take advantage of those lower prices.

As eco-foodies, many of you probably devotedly frequent your local farmers market. Forget seasonal affective disorder during the dead of winter; you come down with farmer’s market withdrawal disorder. You love your fresh, local fruits and veggies and try to buy what’s in season. But just as it’s difficult to eat all organic all the time, it’s difficult to not let imported produce sneak into your diet.

Keep these three tips in mind when it comes to eating imported fruits and vegetables.

As eco-foodies, many of you probably devotedly frequent your local farmers market. Forget seasonal affective disorder during the dead of winter; you come down with farmer’s market withdrawal disorder. You love your fresh, local fruits and veggies and try to buy what’s in season. But just as it’s difficult to eat all organic all the time, it’s difficult to not let imported produce sneak into your diet.

Nearly two-thirds of the fruits and vegetables eaten domestically, and 10 to 15 percent of all food consumed by U.S. households is imported from abroad. These numbers just continue to grow. Every year over the last seven years, food imports have grown by an average of 10 percent, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

So, why should you bypass imported produce? It’s not that you shouldn’t eat fruits and vegetables from abroad. The nutritional benefits of a diet rich in a variety of fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks from pesticides and prove far more valuable health-wise than indulging in high fat or sugary snacks. But from a green (and community) standpoint, local is better.

Keep these three tips in mind when it comes to eating imported fruits and vegetables.

1. Eat Tropical Less Often

Although summer eating dictates indulging in a few tropical treats, tropical fruits including bananas, coconuts, guava and mangos, are often grown thousands of miles away—quite the carbon footprint to reach your tummy. That said, successfully determining a fruit or vegetable’s carbon footprint gets pretty darn tricky. It’s not as easy as simply counting the number of miles traveled, although that’s certainly a factor. Some tropically-grown foods could actually boast a low carbon footprint because less intensive agricultural methods are used to grow them than some conventional domestic produce. Still, it’s farther than your local farm.

So, let’s just grow it here, right? No. Growing tropical foods domestically isn’t a feasible option. It would require more energy and emit more fossil fuels to grow tropical produce in the U.S. than to have it shipped in. And while tropical produce often gets freighted by air (another eco-factor to consider), transportation actually only accounts for a small percentage of the energy used to get a food to your mouth.

Whew. So what does all of that mean? When it comes to tropical produce, start to think of those fruits and vegetables as treats instead of everyday staples and you’ll be well on your way to greener eating. You don’t have to cut bananas out of your life, just try the next two tips before choosing tropical fruits and veggies.

2. If It’s in Season, Buy Local

If those apples or blueberries you’re craving are in season, your best bet is to buy local. Freshly picked fruits and vegetables pack maximum nutrition, so get to eatin’ those local goodies. Not all areas of the U.S. have this luxury, but if you can take advantage of your local options, do.

Out-of-season fruits and vegetables are often imported from countries with less-stringent regulations for pesticide use and food handling. In fact, imported foods are three times more likely to be contaminated with pathogens than domestic produce. And the FDA only inspects a small portion of produce that makes its way to kitchens. In 2010, the FDA only inspected about 2.06 percent of all food-related imports—and that number is expected to drop to 1.59 this year as imports increase and the FDA’s manpower remains the same.

3. Go Organic

You’ve heard it before, but once more won’t hurt. Eating organic produce limits your exposure to dangerous pesticides and chemicals. Different pesticides have been linked to brain and nervous system toxicity, cancer, hormone disruption and skin, eye and lung irritation. Not stuff you want lurking on your fruits and veggies. Plus, produce imported from abroad tends to contain higher levels of pesticide residues. The moral of the story? If it’s imported, definitely choose organic.

In late summer, I unpack my warm wardrobe in preparation for cold weather. I unroll wool socks, rummage for scarves and start stocking caps while I wax poetic on summer, and reluctantly accept farmers market season is almost over.

While you peruse the pumpkin and squash laden hay bails during your local farmers markets’ last hurrahs, start to mull over how you’ll get fresh, organic produce in the fall and early winter months. Truth be told, finding -- and growing -- seasonal produce during fall is not as difficult as you think.

In late summer, I unpack my warm wardrobe in preparation for cold weather. I unroll wool socks, rummage for scarves and start stocking caps while I wax poetic on summer, and reluctantly accept farmers market season is almost over.

While you peruse the pumpkin and squash laden hay bails during your local farmers markets’ last hurrahs, start to mull over how you’ll get fresh, organic produce in the fall and early winter months. Truth be told, finding — and growing — seasonal produce during fall is not as difficult as you think.

Indoor Gardening

Fresh herbs and sprouts liven any hearty, winter stew or roasted vegetable medley. It’s a snap to cultivate fresh herbs, such as parsley, dill, mint,sage and thyme, in your kitchen near a well-insulated windowsill.

Plant in Early Fall, Eat in Early Winter

Plant the following vegetables in your garden in late summer or early fall and harvest during the first frigid weeks of winter. Just remember to protect and cover your delicate produce as the weather starts to change.

Locate a Farm Shop

Internet services, such as Local Harvest, help fresh produce lovers find farms that carry organic produce, meat and eggs year-round. Here’s what Local Harvest is all about:

The best organic food is what’s grown closest to you. Use our website to find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainable grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies. Want to support this great web site? Shop in our catalog for things you can’t find locally!

Special Delivery

Organic produce delivery services bring fresh produce and organic food to your door throughout the year. Companies, such as Door-to-Door Organics and Organics to You, sell boxes of fruits and vegetables from diverse, organic farms. Order varied sizes of boxes weekly, bi-weekly or once a month.

Shop on the Outside

Grocery stores tend to keep fresh produce, whole grains and organic food on the perimeters of the building. You may not be able to find everything you want at the store, but it’s a good start! Also, contact your local grocery store and ask the produce manager to consider ordering more organic and local produce. Ask now and your produce shopping experience may be more enjoyable when fall takes hold.

Louisiana’s legislature is considering a bill that would offer financial rewards to area restaurants that use locally grown fruits and vegetables in their menu items.

The bill, which passed through the Senate in May, is now off to the House and then to the governor, where if approved, the Louisiana Buy Local Purchase Incentive Program would reward eligible restaurants with 4 percent reimbursements on the costs of purchasing locally grown and raised foods—an incentive estimated to bring $7 million per year in rebates for area businesses and a badly hit Louisiana economy.

The program would be voluntary and would be financially supported through the produce and other local industry organizations, not by Louisiana taxpayers. In addition to the financial rewards for restaurants, the bill would put an emphasis on regional agriculture development, boosting employment in areas of the state still rebounding from the effects of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill.

According to the bill’s text, “The health, safety and welfare of the people of this state are dependent upon the continued encouragement, development, growth and expansion of Louisiana farmers and agricultural products.”

Buying and supporting locally grown organic fruits and vegetables is at the heart of the “locavore” movement trending across the country. Gourmands and foodies often prefer local foods for the fresh flavors, while many consumers find they can spend less money while also supporting regional businesses. According to the USDA, as of mid-2010, there were more than 6,100 farmers markets across the country—a 16 percent increase over 2009.

As we head into March, New York’s biggest rooftop farm – the Brooklyn Grange – gears up for a fresh load of crops with the knowledge of what works and needs improvement for year two.

The Grange popped up last May on a 40,000 square-foot rooftop in Queens. It produced 15,000 pounds of organic fruits and veggies including tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, salad greens, radishes, carrots and 36 more varieties. While the garden isn’t certified organic, the Grange doesn’t use any synthetic fertilizers, insecticides or herbicides. The garden, which is covered with 1.2 million pounds of soil and over 20,000 linear feet of green roofing material, operates nine months out of the year. Over the winter, they use cover crops like rye, buckwheat, vetch and clover.

They reached out to local restaurants like Fatty Cue, Vesta, and Roberta’s as well as locavores who signed up for their CSA (only $20 per week) and bypassers who bought from the greenmarket on the ground floor of the building. Their goal – to improve access to very good food, to connect city people more closely to farms and food production, and to make urban farming a viable enterprise and livelihood – had been a success but not without its challenges.

This year, owners Ben Flanner, Brandon Hoy and Chris Parachini are ready for the challenges that faced them last year like wind, bugs and heavy feeders. Harlequin bugs posed a threat to the Grange’s crops so natural predators will be introduced as well as the owners’ own two fingers for squashing. They will also be getting creative with bamboo sticks and teepees to avoid wind damage to growing crops and leave out “heavy feeders” like cabbage that didn’t do so well last year.

Flanner’s enthusiasm for rooftop farming doesn’t stop with just this. He is dedicated to getting more rooftops in NYC on board and invites the community to visit, volunteer and participate in the process. If you’re interested in getting involved in the farm this spring or summer, sign up for the mailing list and they’ll get in contact with you as soon as the season gets rolling.

With high unemployment and high grocery prices, even the most successful New Yorkers are taking a hit, so you can imagine what kind of state the low income families are in. It’s no secret that many low income neighborhoods lack in fresh food markets and for that reason have been linked to obesity for years. So in an effort to supplement wholesome, fresh meals to low income families, New York City Greenmarkets have been accepting food stamps for quite a while. However, with more NYers out of work, last year the purchases doubled to half a million in sales.

With high unemployment and high grocery prices, even the most successful New Yorkers are taking a hit, so you can imagine what kind of state the low income families are in. It’s no secret that many low income neighborhoods lack in fresh food markets and for that reason have been linked to obesity for years. So, in an effort to supplement wholesome, fresh meals to low income families, New York City Greenmarkets have been accepting food stamps for quite a while. However, with more NYers out of work, last year the purchases doubled to half a million in sales.

Back in 2006 when food stamps switched to automated EBT machines, many Greenmarkets noticed a decrease in food stamp sales since they didn’t have access to an EBT machine for purchases. So Speaker Quinn and the City Council teamed up with the GrowNYC to provide funding for Greenmarkets to have EBT machines. The program was an immediate success by starting out in the Bronx where sales went from nothing to $500 a day and this year, the 175th St. Greenmarket led the city in food stamp sales with $65,419.

Now, there are EBT machines at 40 Greenmarkets and GrowNYC conducted a major marketing plan in 2010 urging people to use their food stamps at the local markets which provide healthy, local food and support local jobs. It’s working because in 2009 food stamp purchases at Greenmarkets were $251,000 and in 2010 they doubled to $500,000. Some markets have even reported nearly $6,000 in food stamp sales in a single day. In addition, over 80 perfect of total food stamp dollars were used to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables… not soda, Mr. Bloomberg.

If you were laid-off in 2010 like over 8 percent of the New York workforce, you may be eligible. Also, if you make less than $18,000 or less than $50,000 and have children, you could get food stamps for your Greenmarket shopping.